


Listening Post

by ERNest



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First War with Voldemort, Gen, Introspection, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 22:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7592293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus has a job to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Remus finds that most of his job is listening, and he’s very good at it. He rarely tries to convince them to join his fight, but he does talk about how Voldemort probably isn’t the best ally for non-human creatures, no matter how magical or intelligent. Usually, though, the most effective strategy is to let his contacts talk, as a reminder that _someone_ will let them. He does mention the resistance everyone’s putting up, and some creature volunteer to help without being asked, but recruitment isn’t his goal, not really.

Several Order members sneer that he’s just rousing potential allies to glorious inaction; that anyone not actively opposing Voldemort is basically supporting him, but Remus knows better. You can’t force someone into a war they didn’t choose for themselves, especially when they have been thrown into a daily war already just because of the body they inhabit. That would be true anyway, but when your whole cause centers on individual autonomy and how a person’s background doesn’t have to set their future in stone, it seems even worse to turn around and praise someone’s natural capabilities to entice them to the “right” side.

He shudders. No doubt that is an important task if they plan to actually win this fight, but it is one someone else will have to perform.


	2. Chapter 2

Many of the werewolves Remus has met, at least those who are not already planning to defect to Voldemort, have chosen to live a Muggle life. Some things are less comfortable they say once he gets them talking, less convenient, but the stares they got from wizards who knew and thought that meant they understood, weren’t those worse?

Remus, fumbling with the burner in one werewolf’s kitchen or another, always nods. He knows that impulse to run away and blend in somewhere else, even if that’s impossible for him now. He has a job to do and it requires being practically nomadic. Not everyone is like that anymore, he comments (though he knows too many people still are). There’s been a sea-change, and once You-Know Who has been defeated, it will be even better.

He adds something to the potion and watches it change from milky white to a subtle green with smoke curling around the brim. Something is coming to a boil and he can feel it out there in an inhospitable world. Whichever lonely person for whom he tames the wolf can surely feel it too, he knows, or they wouldn’t be exiled from their history like this. Many went underground long before this current obsession with blood purity and he asks if they miss it at all.

There may be a tinge of regret as people dodge the question and talk about the life they’ve made here, how no one suspects they have powers, much less how those powers can turn on them. They are a myth, which makes them invisible. It can be lonely to have no one who knows, but it’s safer. By the way, thank you for the Wolfsbane. And for listening.


End file.
